The present invention relates to computer managed communication networks such as the World Wide Web (Web) and, particularly, to the updating of embedded links or hotspots in source Web pages to reflect the new Universal Resource Locations (URLs) of moved target Web Pages.
The 1990""s decade has been marked by a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. The effect has, in turn, driven technologies which have been known and available but relatively quiescent over the years. A major one of these technologies is the Internet or Web related distribution of documents, media and programs. The convergence of the electronic entertainment and consumer industries with data processing exponentially accelerated the demand for wide ranging communication distribution channels, and the Web or Internet, which had quietly existed for over a generation as a loose academic and government data distribution facility, reached xe2x80x9ccritical massxe2x80x9d and commenced a period of phenomenal expansion. With this expansion, businesses and consumers have direct access to all matter of documents, media and computer programs.
In addition, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which had been the documentation language of the Internet or Web for years, offered direct links between Web pages. This even further exploded the use of the Internet or Web. It was now possible for the Web browser or wanderer to spend literally hours going through document after document in often less than productive excursions through the Web. These excursions often strained the users"" time and resources. In order for the Internet to mature from its great expectations to solid commercial fruition, it will be necessary for the Internet to greatly reduce its drain on time and related resources. A significant source of this drain is in the Web page itself (the basic document page of the Web).
In the case of Web pages, we do not have the situation of a relatively small group of professional designers working out the human factors; rather, in the era of the Web, anyone and everyone can design a Web page. As a result, Web pages are frequently set up and designed in an eclectic manner. Often, there is insufficient provision made for embedded links or hotspots in such Web pages which link to target Web pages which no longer exist or have been moved and are located at new URLs. This could potentially lead to chaotic Web browsing as the user wastes time going up blind alleys.
The present invention provides a structured way to update the URLs pointed to by embedded links in source Web pages when the target pages of such links have moved and have new URLs. The invention also can provide the host or owner of the target page with the opportunity to refuse to have the source page embedded link updated, and provide the host of the source page with the capability of not updating its embedded link to thereby eliminate the link to a new URL.
The present invention is implemented in a Web communication network with user access via a plurality of data processor controlled interactive display stations for displaying Web pages transmitted to receiving display stations from URLs remote from said stations, said Web pages being linkable with each other through embedded links in source Web page. It provides a system for updating said embedded links in source Web pages when the URL of a target Web page is moved. The basic system includes means associated with the target Web page of a selected link in a requesting Web page for informing the requesting page that the target page has moved together with means associated with the requesting page responsive to this informing means for forwarding the URL of the source Web page of the requesting page to the original URL of the target page.
Some basic definitions are provided. The source Web page is the basic Web page which contains the embedded links; it is at the URL of the owner or host who provided the page. The requesting Web page is the same source Web page having the same embedded links which was provided from the source to a user at a receiving display station. The requesting Web page is so designated because it made the selected request via an embedded link to the target Web page which has moved and thus changed its URL.
The system further includes means associated with the target page for returning the new URL of the target page to the source Web page, and means associated with the source Web page for updating the selected embedded link with the new URL of the target page. Accordingly, upon the first occurrence of a selection of a link in a requesting page to a target Web page which has moved, the above system will operate to update the source Web page link with the new URL of the moved target page so that the link will be updated in any subsequent requesting Web pages resulting from the updated source Web page.
The present invention also may include means for forwarding the contents of the source Web page along with its URL back to the original target page URL so that the means at the target page for returning the new URL of the target page also updates the selected embedded link in the source page with said new URL.
In accordance with a more particular aspect of the present invention, the means associated with the target Web page for informing the requesting Web page that the target page has moved is a detour or surrogate page. In such a particular set up, the requesting Web page may have associated Web browser means for conventional accessing of Web pages, and this browser also includes the means for forwarding the source page contents and URL via this detour page to said source page.
The present invention may also include security means for limiting access to said source page from said target page in combination with means for permitting said return of said new target page URL and said updating of said embedded link when said access limitations are met. Thus, the host who owns the source Web page is given the capability of excluding the updating of links to the new URLs by setting access limitations. This may be accomplished through a Web server connecting the display station having the source Web page to the Web, so that the security means for limiting access and the means for permitting access are included in said Web server.